Orbit / Time Warner Book Group UK

UK First Edition Hardcover

ISBN 1-841-49155-1

Publication Date: 09-28-2004

534 Pages; £17.99

Date Reviewed: 10-18-04

I suppose that everyone has gaps in their reading, authors they'd
love to have read but have not yet got round to. I grew tired of
science fiction in the 1980's and didn't really return to the genre
with any enthusiasm until the late 1990's. The authors who first
really caught my eye -- Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton with
their great cranking space operas -- both mentioned Iain M. Banks as
a primal influence. But by that time, Banks' Culture series was well
under way. Though I bought the first couple of entries, both as trade
paperbacks and even, more recently, in a first edition hardcover, I
never got round to actually reading the work of the writer who cast
such a large shadow on my new favorites.

Thanks then to Iain M. Banks himself, who neatly solves the
problem for me and others like me with his most recent novel, 'The
Algebraist'. Finally I get to see what all the fuss is about. In a
word (or two): great writing. Banks brings a huge imagination, vivid
scenarios, head-spinning speculations, fascinating scientific
information, in other words all the expected bits. But it's the
unexpected that we really expect in a novel like this. That frisson
of surprise, the shock of the new. What could be shocking in space
opera, the genre that has everything in the universe? Sex? Nah,
zero-g and inter-species, it's been done and overdone. Violence?
Heck, George Lucas blew up planets nearly thirty years ago. It was a
yawner then, it's more so now.

What about wit? Wit -- true wit, actual smarts manifested in
cleverly written prose, now that always manages to shock no matter
how outré or bland the subject matter. Iain M. Banks will
shock the heck out of you in 'The Algbraist' with nothing more than a
sharp mind, and he'll do so continually, surprisingly and in ways
that will make you laugh out loud. Now, funny science fiction isn't
all that unusual. But Banks' humor is not the broad satire of writers
like Douglas Adams. Banks manages to meld his sense of humor with his
sense of wonder. The humor never undercuts the awe, but oddly enough,
contributes to it. His characters, confronted with the ultimate don't
just sit there with their jaws dropped. They make a joke. They
bicker. They needle one another. And what could be better? If you
must blow your mind, the least you can do is laugh.

'The Algebraist' begins -- after some framing shots -- with
Archimandrite Luseferous, Executive High General of -- well, what
turns out to be a bunch of well-armed starships traveling nearly the
speed of light to conquer Ulubis, an unarmed and relatively obscure
portion of the civilized galaxy. Luserferous is "that most deplorable of
beings, a psychopathic sadist with a fertile imagination," but it's the
imagination of Banks that shines in the scenes that create this character. In
the system
of Ulubis, Fassin Taak
is a Slow Seer, a human who has been trained to speak to the
Dwellers, a nearly immortal race of beings that live in the gas
giants throughout the galaxy. An easily broken system of wormholes
connects some of the Mercatoria, the civilized planets, and the
wormhole to Ulubis was recently destroyed by Beyonders. A fleet from
the Mercatoria is heading to fix the wormhole. Soon, Fassin Taak finds
that his ability to speak to the Dwellers has unleashed a series of
events that threatens to overturn galactic civilization.

Banks quickly offers up some fascinating ideas and runs with them
in 'The Algebraist'. The Dwellers, who experience time at a slower
rate than humans and other races throughout the galaxy are a
fascinating thought experiment. Banks lays out and layers his
presentation of a civilized universe with consummate skill. One of
the true pleasures of reading space opera is the reader's slowly
unfolding understanding of the universe created by the author. 'The
Algebraist' manages just the right combination of "what-the-hell?"
and "oh-my-god!" revelations as to how things work in Banks' vision.
Banks knows when to zoom in and knows when to pan out. He goes from
microscopic to telescopic as the situation demands. Much science
fiction uses the devices of mystery, carefully holding back
information from the reader to keep them guessing as to the true
nature of things. Banks does this so well, one suspects that he might
have a fantastic mystery novel out there somewhere. The plot grips
the reader in the opening and moves at a steady, entertaining clip.

But where Banks really shines is in his ability to evoke subtle,
satiric swipes at the world we know within the universe he creates.
Much of this is down to great characters and witty dialogue. From
their description -- ancient and slow -- one might suspect that
reading about the Dwellers could be a tedious business. But nothing
is further from the truth. Banks is practically antic as Fassin Taak
speaks with the ancient creatures, who offer some of the best space
slapstick you're going to find this side of the 'Hitchiker's Guide'.
But it's also utterly unlike the more typical broad satire readers
are used to in science fiction. His humor comes out of character and
dialogue, the satire out of his conceptual societal relationships and the
dialogue. Readers who pick a space opera only to escape will find
that being reminded of the Real Word by a master of science
fiction space opera can indeed be a pleasant experience.

Banks doesn't stint on the awe and wonder however, nor does he
hold back from offering full-scale space battles that have yet
another twist of imagination and invention. The set-pieces in this
novel are exciting, visually grand and quite inventive. Though some
of the characters do seem to get a bit of a short shrift in the grand
scheme of things, Banks is good enough at misdirection to keep the
readers' eyes where he wants them to be. Readers who purchase the hadcover copy
will be rewarded with a nicely printed book that's remarkably easy to read.
If you've not read Banks --
or recent space opera -- then 'The Algebraist' is a fine place to
begin. It successfully offers nothing less than universe -- with a
few well-placed laughs.